Introduction
As time goes on, it becomes increasingly clear that there is a strongly defined discursive sounding to just about every gerontological concept/model. That is, the way in which social scientists go about defining the significance of one or another aspect of aging reflects the measure of these people’s affiliation with the currently dominant (hegemonic) socio-cultural discourse. Nowadays, this discourse happened to be associated with the political ideology of Liberalism, which glorifies the values of individualism, self-autonomy, and hedonistic egoism.
These values, however, are inconsistent with the fact that it is namely the systemic subtleties of the society’s functioning (as a whole) that define its overall quality, and not merely the sum of the society members’ individual qualities. In its turn, this explains why, even though many articles concerned with the issues of gerontology do offer a number of valuable insights into the discussed phenomena, they are rather sporadic and somewhat incidental. In my paper, I will explore the validity of this suggestion at length, with respect to four chosen articles from weeks 2-5, while arguing that just about each of them confirms the validity of the systemic (societal) outlook on the process of aging – even despite some of the authors’ initial intention.
Review
The main idea promoted throughout Lamb’s (2014) article is that, for elderly people to be able to lead a socially-productive and enjoyable lifestyle, they need to be encouraged to practice the model of ‘successful aging’, which according to the author reflects the earlier mentioned values. Hence, the model’s foremost principles, “Fight for your independence, maintain physical independence, maintain financial independence, know what you can do to avoid dependency” (p. 45).
According to Lamb, senior citizens must be discouraged from giving too much thought to the socially constructed implications of one’s advanced age. The reason for this is that the author believes this would help older people to strengthen the integrity of their sense of self-identity. As she noted, “Successful aging discourse may be termed ‘permanent personhood’—a vision of the ideal person as not really aging at all in late life, but rather maintaining the self of one’s earlier years” (Lamb, 2014, p. 45).
In its turn, this should help the model’s practitioners to remain the society’s productive members well into senility. Nevertheless, a closer analysis of the concerned suggestion will reveal that it is misleading to an extent. This simply could not otherwise – an older person’s ability to enjoy autonomy/impendence does not necessarily equal to his or her ability to contribute to the society’s well-being, in the factual sense of this word.
Yet, as practice indicates, it is specifically the senior citizens’ sensation of remaining practically ‘useful’ to the society, which makes them happy and content with life more than anything else does. And, the main precondition for old people to be considered socially ‘useful’ is their endowment with wisdom, which they can share with others. Consequently, this presupposes that ‘successful aging’ is about leading a socially-integrated/collectivist rather than highly individualistic/autonomous lifestyle.
In their article, Martinson and Minkler (2006) promote essentially the same idea, while pointing out to the fact that there are both: socio-economic and discursive aspects to the process of aging, which in turn explains the aspiration to remain socially active, on the part of many senior citizens. According to the authors, the manner in which elderly individuals go about trying to fill their lives with meaning reflects the overall quality of socio-economic dynamics within society. As they noted, “The political economy… considers how political and economic contexts and factors such as race, class, and gender interact to help shape and determine the experience of aging and growing old” (Martinson & Minkler, 2006, p. 320).
What it means is that, as time goes on, the potential strategies for elderly people to remain civically engaged are bound to undergo a continual transformation. The reason for this is apparent – these strategies may never cease being circumstantially appropriate. Therefore, the authors aptly conclude that it is utterly wrong to assume that social volunteerism, on the part of senior citizens, has the value of a ‘thing in itself’. Hence, the article’s main idea, “The growing movement to institutionalize volunteering and civic engagement among older Americans must be approached with thoughtfulness and a critical eye” (Martinson & Minkler, 2006, p. 322).
This, in turn, implies the inappropriateness of the practice of turning old people’s civic engagement into a fetish – something commonly done in the West. The authors need to be given credit for having voiced this suggestion, although rather implicitly.
With respect to how it discusses the significance of aging, the article by Twigg (2007) is somewhat similar to the above-mentioned one. According to the author, even though there are no fashions meant to appeal exclusively to old people, there are nevertheless a number of clearly identifiable trends in how senior citizens go about shopping for clothes. For example, the author noted that “Older people’s clothes… (are) longer and to some degree more shapeless than those of young adults” (Twigg, 2007, p. 293).
Older individuals also prefer non-catchy/subtle colors. Twigg refers to this as yet another indication of the fact that, despite their advanced age, senior citizens perceive the surrounding reality and their place in it from the strongly defined societal perspective. After all, it is specifically the society that prescribes these individuals to dress age-appropriately – once they cease to be sexually reproductive, there is no need for them to try to appeal to the representatives of the opposite gender by wearing colorful/body-revealing clothes. If they still do, however, society ends up ostracizing them.
This is indeed a rather insightful observation, on the author’s part, which helps us to gain a better understanding of an old person’s socially engaged behavior. The article’s main drawback is that it contains a few unsupported assumptions, such as the one concerned with the idea that, as time goes on; older people will be coerced to conform to the ways of the society to an even lesser degree.
The validity of the initial thesis can be also illustrated, in regard to Borovoy and Hine’s (2008) article, in which both authors aimed to tackle the phenomenon of elderly Russian Jewish émigrés being the most difficult/non-compliant patients in the nursing-care settings. As the authors noted, “Russian émigré patients have gained the reputation of being especially difficult, ‘noncompliant’ patients, particularly in the area of diabetes management” (p. 5).
Borovoy and Hine refer to the issue as being of the essentially socio-economic nature. According to the authors, having been born in the USSR, these individuals used to be discouraged from practicing self-discipline, which is individualistic (Western) virtue. Even though this point of view is thoroughly legitimate, it nevertheless does not take into account the possibility that the issue at stake is much deeper. Because of the specifics of their cultural affiliation, which implies that they have been brought up in the highly collectivist environment, Russian émigré patients are naturally predisposed to think that the purpose of medical therapies is to heal rather than to simply eliminate/suppress unpleasant symptoms in a person.
There is, however, nothing irrational about the mentioned tendency, on these people’s part – the fact that they are considered ‘difficult patients’ suggests that the very biomedical (Western) paradigm of healthcare is not quite as methodologically appropriate, as its proponents would like everybody to believe. In turn, this can be explained by the fact that the biomedical model of healthcare continues to be based on the assumption that the patient’s behavior is primarily defined by the individualist/egoist anxieties in him or her. Yet, as the example of Russian émigré patients indicates, this is not always the case.
Conclusion
I believe that the provided review/criticism of all four articles does correlate perfectly well with the initial thesis that the process of aging is best discussed in societal/collectivist rather than in strictly individualistic/libertarian terms. It is understood, of course, that neither of the reviewed articles promotes such an idea explicitly. Nevertheless, the reading of these articles will leave only a few doubts about the fact that the process in question cannot be discussed outside of the strongly defined social context. Therefore, when it comes to designing social policies, with respect to elderly people, social scientists/politicians must be willing to treat the former as a thoroughly tangible social asset.
References
Borovoy, A. & Hine, J. (2008). Managing the unmanageable: elderly Russian Jewish émigrés and the biomedical culture of diabetes care. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 22(1): 1-26. Web.
Lamb, S. (2014). Permanent personhood or meaningful decline? Toward a critical anthropology of successful aging. Journal of Aging Studies, 29, 41-52. Web.
Martinson, M. & Minkler, M. (2006). Civic engagement and older adults: A critical perspective. The Gerontologist, 46(3), 318-24. Web.
Twigg, J. (2007). Clothing, age and the body: A critical review. Aging and Society, 27, 285-305. Web.